Consultant focuses on businesses models of Apple, Google in Lubbock lecture series

Vitalari stresses importance of elasticity, technology and the creation of partnerships

Posted: October 3, 2012 - 6:10pm | Updated: October 3, 2012 - 11:27pm

AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Companies can learn from business models like Apple, Goole and GE Aviation to improve their strategies for success in this century, a leading national consultant and author told Lubbock business executives during a Wednesday luncheon.

Nick Vitalari, guest speaker for an audience of about 130 during the Texas Tech Rawls College of Business Administration Chief Executives’ Roundtable at the Scottish Rite banquet hall in south Lubbock, stressed the elasticity, use of technology and innovative partnerships with other businesses and customers used by recently successful companies.

Vitalari, author of “The Elastic Enterprise: The New Manifesto for Business Revolution,” said Apple’s use of interactive features allowing customers to participate in its business by creating their own applications and Google’s entrance into the smartphone industry through its partnership with Android exemplify how businesses find success in an evolving business climate.

“The innovation is no longer just inside the company,” Vitalari said.

“It’s throughout all your partner networks and, by the way, sometimes your customers participate in that as well.”

Vitalari is managing director of Elasticity Labs, a consulting firm that helps companies introduce new levels of elasticity into their strategies and operations.

Series organizers invited Vitalari to speak hoping he could provide perspective on how technology impacts the way business is organized and operates, said Jim Wetherbe, chairman of the lecture series and a professor in the Rawls College of Business Administration at Texas Tech.

“The lecture series gives business people in the community a chance to eat and get educated at the same time,” Wetherbe said.

Vitalari said successful companies are also benefiting from use of shared information on virtual clouds — such as Apple’s user storage iCloud — describing GE Aviation’s use of jet engine technology, which allows the company to continuously monitor engine performance during flights.

“(That means) when the plane landed at the next airport they could be ready to fix whatever was wrong with the plane,” he said.

Using that information, GE created a “maintenance partner ecosystem” with other companies, Vitalari said.

“Instead of GE trying to build maintenance facilities all over the world, they partnered with these other maintenance companies and those guys plugged into (GE’s) platform. They had access to all of the information,” he said, adding major airlines also benefit from being able to plug into GE’s maintenance database.

Vitalari said successful companies are going beyond their familiar borders, exploring new areas to expand their business, forming partnerships and avoiding being weighed down by capital.

“You get faster, cheaper and better and you can do it with less friction,” Vitalari said.